Table of Contents

Slave Hires, 1775-1865 (ICPSR 7422)

Principal Investigator(s):
Fogel, Robert W., University of Rochester;
Engerman, Stanley L., University of Rochester

Summary:

This study presents data pertaining to slave hiring
transactions that occurred between 1775-1865 in eight states of the
southern United States: Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi. The data
were obtained from probate records on deposit in the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints Genealogical Society Library, Salt Lake
City, Utah. Variables document the location of the hiring transaction
and the period and rate of hire, as well as the hired slaves' age,
sex, occupational skills, and condition of health. A related study is
SLAVE SALES AND APPRAISALS, 1775-1865 (ICPSR 7421), also prepared by
Robert W. Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman.

This study presents data pertaining to slave hiring
transactions that occurred between 1775-1865 in eight states of the
southern United States: Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi. The data
were obtained from probate records on deposit in the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints Genealogical Society Library, Salt Lake
City, Utah. Variables document the location of the hiring transaction
and the period and rate of hire, as well as the hired slaves' age,
sex, occupational skills, and condition of health. A related study is
SLAVE SALES AND APPRAISALS, 1775-1865 (ICPSR 7421), also prepared by
Robert W. Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman.

Universe:
Slave hires in the southern United States (Maryland,
Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee,
Georgia, and Mississippi) between 1775-1865.

Data Type(s):
administrative records data

Data Collection Notes:

Variable 5, recording "Year in which Hiring
Transaction Occurred", has values ranging from 1785 to 1865, and value
0 for "year unknown".

Methodology

Sample:
Nonrandom convenience sample.

Data Source:

Probate records for the southern states, on deposit in
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Genealogical
Society Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Created online analysis version with question text.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release: 1984-05-11

Version History:

2006-10-11 ICPSR has added value labels found in
the original documentation from the principal investigators to the
setup and data files. A PDF codebook was added and the metadata record
was revised.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to
one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as
well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS
portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised
2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.